The Topper

"Would you guys mind stopping by and picking up that pallet of shingles that has been sitting in my driveway FOR A MONTH NOW. And the HOA says you can't have your sign in the yard anymore!"

We've got a BRAND NEW roof thanks to some hail, our insurance company, our mortgage h0lder and a local contractor. Pretty nice, eh?

(I've been noticing in crossword puzzles...we senior types are supposed to say, "eh?" a lot.)

Anyway, what do you think? Those are lifetime shingles up there. They replace wood shingles our HOA banned a few years back.

But you know what? As nice as those shingles look? They are not on OUR ROOF. They are on the roof of the house our local contractor told us to go see...so we'd know how our roof would look when they were finished. HERE'S our roof:

On the show roof below, notice how they used extra shingles coming up to the metal flashing. They did that to compensate for the gap created by the new shingles being thinner than the wood shingles.

AND,

notice on the show house how clean the shingles match up with the home's siding.

Well, now here is a picture of our new roof!

Well maybe that contractor will come back and patch a few things up so that our roof will look more like that show roof, huh? But then why would the county building inspector leave this little notice on my garage door?

And what does it say right here?

APPROVED! Well you know what? Peggy and I have now moved all those shingles sitting in the driveway to a safe place. I figure they belong to the insurance company anyway.

But listen, I'll gladly let the contractor have them for the next job if he'll send a crew out to make MY roof a SHOW roof. And it is for that reason I've not yet named the contractor. But, at my neighbor's supportive suggestion, I won't wait long for a response, certainly not another month.

Oh, let me leave you with this. I never asked for a NEW ROOF! They just gave it to me!

BOY, DID THEY!.